Tularemia Essays

Tularemia Essays Tularemia Essay Tularemia Essay Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Tularemia Introduction Tularemia is a highly infectious disease, which affects humans and animals, caused by the bacterium francisella tularensis. The disease affects humans through various means such as skin contact with the infected animal, taking contaminated water, inhaling contaminated dust and aerosols, bites from ticks such as dog ticks, lone star ticks, and wood ticks, bites from deer flies, exposure in the laboratory, and as an act of bioterrorism (CDC). The bacterium is highly contagious, and a small number can cause the disease. terrorists can use it as a weapon, in form of inhalation, and this would increase the number of people susceptible to the disease. Pneumonic tularemia tends to be more severe. The disease causes severe pain and it could be fatal. Mosquitoes also carry the disease, and they can spread them to humans. The bacteria enter the human body through the skin, mouth, eyes, lungs, or throat. About one hundred animal species can carry the infection (Siderovski 12). This is in additi on to birds, arthropods, and fish, which can also carry the disease. Animals such as rabbits, hares, cats, muskrats, and rodents are more likely to get the infection. In cases of outbreak, the animals die in large numbers. There are no known cases of person-to-person infections. Farmers and hunters are at high risks of getting infections. Description and Classification Francisella tularensis is a gram-negative non-molatile bacterium with two biotypes, tularensis (biotype A) and palaearctica (biotype B). It is in capsule form with pleomorphic cells, which appear as short rods. It is an intracellular pathogen, able to live in ticks for a long time. the bacterium can survive in cool conditions for a long time but the cells are sensitive to heat. The bacterium can survive in water, as well as dry land. It also survives in soil, hay, decaying animal carcasses, and straw. Biotype A is limited to North America and it is highly virulent. Biotype B is found in North America, Europe, Asia and Americas, and it is less virulent. There are four known subspecies, and they include tularensis, holarctica, mediasiatica, and novicida. mediasiatica and novicida have low virulence subspecies tularensis is exclusive to north America, while subspecies holartica is present in Europe and north America (Suckow et al., 341). Signs and Symptoms The symptoms of the disease are varied, and they depend on the mode of infection, although all humans affected by the disease experience a high fever. A person infected with the disease normally experiences the symptoms after a period of 3-5 days, although the symptoms can range from 1-21 days. Other than fever, other symptoms include chills, headaches, muscle pain, eye irritation, sweating, diarrhea, dry coughs, weakness, and joint aches among others (CDC). A person with the infection develops a lesion at the site of entry of the bacteria. The sore is often red, with a ribbed rim and a punched-out center (Siderovski 36). The person develops inflammation of the lymph nodes in the affected area (Suckow et al 342). When the bacterium enters the bloodstream, it causes bacteremia, and this enables the infection to spread to other body organs such as kidneys, spleen, and liver (Siderovski 36). Animals infected with the disease often die, but they exhibit symptoms such as depression and an orexia (Suckow et al 342) Forms of Tularemia Some of the main forms of the disease include glandular, ocuglandular, oropharyngeal, ulceroglandular, and pneumonic. The bacteria in the ulceroglandular form of disease spreads to the lymph nodes at the point of entry. The ulceroglandular form of the disease is the most common. It occurs when the bacterium affects the person through the skin. A person with ulceroglandular develops a lesion, which develops into an ulcer. The ulcer heals after one week, and it is relatively painless (Oyston 921-930). The location of the ulcer in the body can help to determine the mode of transmission. Ulcers on the upper extremities on the body indicate that the person was in close contact with an infected animal. Ulcers on the lower extremities, abdomen or the back of the body indicate that the person got the infection from arthropods (Goddard 106). Glandular tularemia is similar to ulceroglandular, expect that the infected person does not develop an ulcer. The eye is a possible route of infection, and when this happens, the person develops ocuglandular tularemia. A person with this form of disease has swollen eyelids, and he or she develops conjunctivitis. Oropharyngeal tularemia develops when a person eats infected meat or drinks contaminated water (Oyston 921-930). It can also develop when a person puts infected fingers in the mouth (Siderovski 41). This form is also known as gastrointestinal tularemia. A person with this form of disease develops pharyngitis, swollen cervical lymph nodes, and ulcers. Diarrhea is a common symptom in this form of disease, and it ranges from mild and persistent diarrhea to acute diarrhea, which is often fatal. The infected person develops an ulceration of the bowel. He or she experiences nausea and vomiting. A person develops pneumonic or respiratory diarrhea through inhalation. A person with this form of the disease becomes delirious. He or she develops a non-productive cough, chest pain, and dyspenea. The bacteria replicates quickly once a person inhales it. The person might require assistance in breathing. Testing and Diagnosis Tularemia is a rare disease, and doctors find it hard to diagnose the disease. This is because the disease symptoms resemble symptoms of other diseases. Doctors look for symptoms such as swelling lymph nodes and ulcers on the skin to make their diagnosis (Siderovski 48). The patient can help the doctor, by pointing out any chance of exposure with an infected animal. Physicians can identify the disease by examining secretions and biopsy specimen using gram stain or direct fluorescent antibody. Examination using the fluorescent antibodies is quick, and the physician gets the report after a few hours but it is not always possible to guarantee the accuracy of the results (Dennis et al 2763-2773). When testing for the disease, it is important to alert those working in the laboratory, so that they can take the correct preventive measures. There have been several cases of people getting infections because of laboratory exposure. The most efficient way of confirming the disease is by growing it in culture, although it is often difficult to do so. One can grow culture using sputum or pharyngeal washing. For a person with inhalation tularemia, the physician grows the culture from fasting gastric aspirates. The culture has to contain cysteine, and the physician places it in an environment rich in carbon dioxide. It takes about four to six days for the culture to grow (Hepburn Simpson 231-240) Prevention and Treatment People can minimize their chances of infection by adopting several measures such as not handling carcasses since one does not know whether the animal had the diseases, and using gloves when handling infected animals and carcasses. People should not take water if they are not sure of its safety. Contaminated water is one of the easiest ways of acquiring the disease. People who take wild meat should ensure that they cook it thoroughly. Tularemia often affects wild animals, and people should be careful when consuming such meat. People in endemic areas should use repellants to get rid of arthropods, and reduce their chances of infection. They should treat their clothes with repellants, as this will help them to avoid insect bites. Worry about terrorists using the bacterium as a possible weapon has compelled researchers to develop a vaccine. There have been several attempts at this, and the live vaccine strain (LVS) seems to have been the most successful. The vaccine is successful in prov iding protection against small doses of a virulent strain. Governments have not licensed the vaccine because of its reversion to virulence, variable immunogenicity, and mixed colony morphology (Oyston 921-930). The disease can be fatal in humans, if not treated. The mortality rate for untreated tularemia is 30%. Treating the disease reduces this rate to 1% (Goddard 106). Doctors use antibiotics to treat the disease in human beings. Doctors use antibiotics such as streptomycin, gentamicin, doxycycline, and ciprofloxacin to treat the disease (CDC). These are the most common antibiotics, although other antibiotics such as tetracycline and chloramphenicol are in use (Goddard 106). Treatment depends on the type of medication used and stage of the disease, though it takes 10-21 days. The use of antibiotics has increased the chances of the patients’ recovery, and most patients treated usually recover from their illness. : CDC. Tularemia. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2011. Web. 12 July 2012 Dennis, T. David et al. â€Å"Tularemia as a Biological Weapon.† The Journal of American Medical Association 285.21 (2001): 2763-2773 Goddard, Jerome. Infectious Diseases and Arthropods. New York, NY: Springer, 2008. Print Hepburn, J. Matthew and JH Simpson. Tularemia: Current Diagnosis and Treatment Options. 2008. Web. 12 July 2012 Oyston, C. F. Petra. â€Å"Francisella Tularensis: Unravelling the Secrets of an Intracellular Pathogen.† Journal of Medical Microbiology 57.8 (2008): 921-930. Print Siderovski, H. Susan. Tularemia. Infobase Publishing, 2006. Print Suckow, A, Mark et al. The Laboratory Rabbit, Guinea Pig, Hamster, and Other Rodents. Waltham, MA: Academic Press, 2012. Print

Newspaper Sections and Terms

Newspaper Sections and Terms Many people become interested in reading the newsaper as young adults. Students may be required to read the newspaper to search for current events or to research sources. The newspaper can be daunting for beginners. These terms and tips can help readers understand the parts of a newspaper and help them decide what information could be helpful when conducting research. Front Page The first page of a newspaper includes the title, all the publication information, the index, and the main stories that will capture the most attention. The major story of the day will be placed in the most prominent position and contain a large, bold-faced headline. The topic could be of a national scope or it could be a local story. Folio The folio includes the publication information and is often located under the name of the paper. This information includes the date, volume number, and price. News Article A news article is a report on an event that has taken place. Articles may include a byline, body text, photo, and caption. Typically, newspaper articles that appear closest to the front page or within the first section are those that editors consider to be the most important and relevant to their readers. Feature Articles Feature articles report about an issue, person, or event with added depth and more background details. Byline A byline appears at the beginning of an article and gives the writers name. Editor An editor decides what news will be included in each paper and determines where it will appear according to relevance or popularity. The editorial staff determines content policy and creates a collective voice or view. Editorials An editorial is an article written by the editorial staff from a specific perspective. The editorial will offer the newspapers view of an issue. Editorials should not be used as a main source of a research paper, because they are not objective reports. Editorial Cartoons Editorial cartoons have a long and fascinating history. They offer an opinion and convey a message about an important issue in an amusing, entertaining, or poignant visual depiction. Letters to the Editor These are letters sent from readers to a newspaper, usually in response to an article. They often include strong opinions about something the newspaper has published. Letters to the editor should not be used as objective sources for a research paper, but they could prove valuable as quotes to demonstrate a point of view. International News This section contains news about other countries. It may address relationships between two or more countries, political news, information about wars, droughts, disasters, or other events that impact the world in some way. Advertisements Obviously, an advertisement is a section that is purchased and designed for selling a product or idea. Some advertisements are obvious, but some can be mistaken for articles. All advertisements should be labeled, although that label might appear in small print. Business Section This section contains business profiles and news reports about the state of commerce. You can often find reports about new inventions, innovation, and advances in technology. Stock reports appear in the business section. This section could be a good resource for a research assignment. It will include statistics and profiles of people who have made an impact on the economy. Entertainment or Lifestyle The section names and traits will differ from paper to paper, but lifestyle sections typically offer interviews of popular people, interesting people, and people who make a difference in their communities. Other information concerns health, beauty, religion, hobbies, books, and authors.

Business decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Business decision making - Essay Example In order to attain this aim, the paper will seek to attain the following objectives: HealthJuz is a naturally formulated juice drink that will be made in four different flavours including orange, guava, apple and pear. These different fruits will be blended naturally, extracted and made available to consumers in different parts of the UK. A fifth version will contain some important elements of extracts from plants that promote weight loss. This will be extracted naturally from products that will be gathered on organic farms in the UK and in nearby lands in Europe and transported to the UK within not more than 7 days. The products will be bottled on the fruit farms and they will exclude additives and preservatives. The products will be distributed to different outlets that will include small shops and supermarkets within 24 hours to 48 hours after extraction and bottling. This will aim at health-conscious consumers in the UK who want to avoid chemicals and other products that might be toxic and harmful to the human body. The targeted consumers will include the consumers of Greater London and some commercial hubs in South England. The geographic scope will include London and surrounding areas and communities. This will seek to target important persons particularly people who are health-conscious and people who might be concerned with their health and their livelihoods. Consumers are to be classified amongst those who are health conscious who form the existing market whilst there is an active and growing market for healthy products and health foods, there is a number of people who can be literally converted to consumers of healthy products. Hence, there is the need to identify two market segments: This implies that there is the need for Zenith Bottling to engage in some kind of conflict with the entities that control the existing market of

Buddhist Economics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Buddhist Economics - Assignment Example tholics, Orthodox or Protestants have a lot in common, such as they agree with the standard of the New Testament, they own up to the Apostolic Creed and also assert the different institutions of the church. However a number of teachings such as the Gospel of Thomas, philips gospel and Gospel of Truth later came to be discovered at Nag Hammadi by an avenger. On the leadership, the Orthodox Christian group held the belief that leadership only belongs to a small group of persons whose authority could not be challenged in any given way whatsoever and the right to ordain such leader was a prerogative of the apostle. But the Gnostics rejected this theory and went ahead to call it the â€Å"faith of fools.’’ Resurrection then became a controversy where all Christians believed that only Christ or God hold that spiritual authority yet when questioned on who bears that authority presently, one Valentinus responds by saying that it is only the one that comes into direct contact with God that holds this authority. These historical sources all portray God as having been a malicious envier since He envied Adam having consumed   fruit from the tree of knowledge and their eyes being opened just as the serpent promised as described is eby    Gnostic. Clement, the author asserts that God is the ruler and master and should, therefore, be obeyed. He delegates these powers to rulers such as bishops, priests and deacons who must be equally respected and anyone who disobeys them deserves punishment of death! The Gnostics, on the other hand, do not like this idea as some of these leaders could be compromised or entangled by personal gains. Irenaes goes ahead to support this statement by even saying that there is only one true God and that it, therefore, means that there is only one true and one representative of God’s authority on earth- the bishop. Another newly revealed script gives words spoken by a womanly authority, giving the idea that God created both male and female while

Global warming Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 2

Global warming - Research Paper Example While considering meat’s entire lifecycle, a meat eater is said to contribute to 1.5 tons more greenhouse gases per year compared to a vegetarian. This fact has been revealed by a study conducted by the University of Chicago (Michael, 2009). By contrast, changing to a hybrid Toyota Prius from a Toyota Camry is expected to help humans get rid of one ton of greenhouse gases per year (Michael, 2009). Global meat production is increasing every year. This is found to be adding more global warming gases. Therefore it is said that one of the easiest ways to decrease the collective greenhouse gas emissions is to consume less meat. Similarly every human activity is blamed to be causing global warming. These findings appear to be amusing when we properly understand the nature of the process, global warming. Global warming is believed to be primarily caused by carbon dioxide emitted into atmosphere through the use of fossil fuels in vehicles. However we forget that natural water cycle is causing much more carbon-dioxide to come in and out of the atmosphere. Even though we cannot deny that human activities are contributing to warming of earth, it would be wrong to comment that global warming is completely human-made. Some of the causes of global warming are in the arctic region. The polar ice caps melt faster than they get evaporated. This process would be reversed in ten to twenty years. Human activities are causing less than three percent of greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere. Average world temperature is gradually increasing; this process is happening in the last one million years. This is long back the human activities started on earth. Global warming has been happening long back industries started emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We are of the belief that carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere today will negatively affect human beings several hundred years later. This is however not true. The lifespan of carbon dioxide is only 20 year s. After 20 years, the emitted carbon dioxide would completely disappear from atmosphere. Sun has little role in heating the atmosphere. The high frequency radiation of sun does not heat atmosphere. Hot bodies like sun cannot release low frequency radiation called infrared radiation. Rather, the heat from the sun heats the earth’s surface. This process reduces the radiation to infrared. Heat moves into the atmosphere by different processes like conduction, convection and evaporation. The infrared radiation gets absorbed by carbon dioxide. Instead, the sun’s rays heats the Earth’s surface, this weakens the radiation to infrared. From there it moves in to the earth’s atmosphere by any means necessary (Conduction, convection, evaporation). Then the inferred radiation is absorbed by the CO2. Almost 97 percent of the heat in the atmosphere is caused by evaporation or convection. Greenhouse gases are not responsible for this warming of atmosphere (Mintzer, 1992 ). The climatic changes of these ages are negligible compared to the climatic changes of the ancient periods (Mintzer, 1992) (Mike, 2006). Water evaporation is the chief cause of global warming. Water evaporation is causing global warming 100 times more than carbon dioxide emission (Mike, 2006). Human activities

Economics of the movie business Essay Example for Free

Economics of the movie business Essay Most of the movies that are eventually released are cofinanced. This is a term that is used within the movie industry to describe those films for which there are more than one firm that share both the cost of production as well as the revenues. Nearly one-third of all the movies that are released are cofinanced. Various studies have shown that the main reason for cofinancing is to manage and share risk. Most of the major studios are in the category of publicly traded firms where the investors are free to carry out their own diversification decisions. Not always is the cofinancing decision related to the movie returns as the studios rarely cofinance highly risky films1. Demand is difficult to predict and thus financial risk remains to be a characteristic of the film industry since most of the cost is incurred long before the demand can be actualized. It’s thus the reason that most of the authors in this field have argued that the key variable that shapes the industry is the financing strategy adopted. Mainly, there are three ways in which cofinancing would reduce risk associated with the movie production. First, the cofinancing of the relatively risky films by the studios would give them the opportunity to participate in the less risky projects. Second, cofinancing would allow studios to fine tune their portfolios thus gaining the advantage of covariances of the gains across the movies. The third advantage of cofinancing is the simple law of large numbers to share a potential loss . Data collection The data to be used here in this paper is the information provided forth in Goettler, R. L and Leslie, P. (2004) where information on over 3,826 movies was exhibited in the US between 1987 to 2000. The primary source of the data was the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). The analysis focused mainly on ownership choices of the major studios. Out of the 3,826 movies examined, 1,305 were produced by the major studios. The analysis here focuses on ownership choices that have been made by the major studios. Movie profitability has been based on the return on investment, RIO, which is defined as the revenue divided by the cost. Revenue in this case was measured as the North America box office revenue and cost was obtained from the production budget. Film’s negative cost, which is the standard measure of production cost was also used. Other cost such as advertising are in most cases proportional to the cost of production and were thus not evaluated in this kind of study. Thus the ROI evaluated here was basically the relative profitability of the films but not the absolute profitability. Also the measure of revenues in this study excluded some revenues such as foreign box and video revenue. It would be ideal to use all the revenue sources but the approach would have limited the number of films in the analysis as most of this kind of data is only available only to a subset of films. At the same time limiting the analysis only to the films with this kind of extra data may introduce selection bias as most of this data maybe limited to the successful films only1. Identification of cofinanced films The listing of a production company is the first sign that there are cofinancing partners but this is not a sufficient condition. The most important criteria is to know if a firm contributes towards the production cost. Its worth to note that a firm can be credited for having contributed into the production company of a film after initiating then selling the project to a major studio even without retaining revenue shares. This kind of arrangement referred to as â€Å"first-look deal† is common between a semi-independent production company and a studio in a long-term relationship. The criteria used here in determining if a film is cofinanced is that first if a major studio is on the list of the production company for a certain film, then the assumption is that the studio has some ownership stake in the film. Second, Variety magazine was a source of those firms with the first-look deals from the â€Å"Facts on Pacts† list and those that are equity partners. The assumption here was that a firm was a joint owner if it was on the production company list and also on the equity partner2. For those movie that an independent firm and a major studio cofinanced, the question of whether either of these two had the option of being sole-owner remains. In simple term, one may also question which among the two firms initiated the entire project? The available information suggest that the studio usually has the mandate to decide if it will co-own or just be a sole-owner. This kind of decision called â€Å"greenlighting† is usually made during decision point of whether to make the movie or not. Complications do arise like when two companies have the same subsidiary structure such as having the same parent company and at the same time end up owning the same movie. In such cases, it was assumed that the movie was not cofinanced since the production divisions happen to work as integrated components of the parent studio rather than as being competitors. Another point of ownership ignored was the cases where the directors or the star actors negotiate a part of the movie revenues. This was so because most of this happens as a result of the directors/actors strong bargaining power to have a share of the revenue once the movie is successful rather than a strong will to share and manage risk.

Boer War - The Causes :: African Africa History

Boer War - The Causes There were significant political conflicts between the two sides. The Boers treated all blacks very badly and did not give basic human rights even to the blacks working for them. They made them pay taxes but could not vote. It was said to be through religious reasons that the Boers treated blacks so badly. This awful treatment infuriated the British, who had abolished slavery in all its colonies as well as at home in 1834. The Dutch wanted to keep its slaves. Europeans working in the Boer territories were also mistreated. These "Uitlanders" as they were known were key to the Boers' economic success, yet were still denied the vote. The war occurred also because of strategic reasons. The British had already seized Swaziland, Bechuanaland and Basutoland, which more or less surrounded the Boers who feared that if the British took any more territory, they could be under siege, particularly if their route to the sea was blocked. The British wanted to control all of Southern Africa, not just small areas which were isolated - the Boers were their main opponents. There were economic issues involved in the war. The Boers took control of the Transvaal and set up the Orange Free State. They found gold in the Transvaal and this area became very rich indeed. Later diamonds were found in this area as well, and there was argument between the British and Boers over in which nation's territory they lay. Certain individuals had a major role in provoking the war. Cecil Rhodes was probably the most ambitious of Britain's leaders abroad. He was a real imperialist, and strove to expand the British Empire further, especially through his dream of a "Cape Colony to Cairo" railway. He was strongly anti-Boer, and his actions seemed to shape British policy back at home. Also highly influential was Sir Alfred Milner, who was the British High Commissioner and was also strongly anti-Boer. He was supposed to be a peacemaker, but it were the demands he placed on the Boers which sparked the war, and he ended up looking more like a warmonger. Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal and leader of the Boers, did not want to give in to the Uitlanders, since he feared he would lose his position if they were given the vote. It was he who had ordered the first attack against the British in 1881.